Contained in the NFL staff’s wild offseason

So, uh … That was March, huh?

Wow.

Whoo.

Wow. Wow. Wow.

Give your self a second, Chicago Bears followers, to regroup and regain your equilibrium. As a result of let’s be sincere, that will have been the busiest and dizziest month in staff historical past, a wildly eventful 31 days throughout what’s arguably crucial offseason within the franchise’s 104-year existence.

The Bears began the month in Indianapolis, looking to finish their homework at the NFL scouting combine and, most significantly, pushing for readability with their quarterback state of affairs. And so they finished March with a direction that positions them to draft their subsequent attainable savior at No. 1 general. (All indicators level towards a union with USC’s Caleb Williams.)

Critically, although. What a month it was.

Trades. Signings. Stadium developments.

Exits. Arrivals.

“Quietest offseason in Chicago Bears historical past,” Chairman George McCaskey quipped on the finish of the NFL house owners conferences in Florida.

Discuss March Insanity. Discuss a fast cycle of happenings the place it felt, at instances, like each breath the Bears took turned a headline that triggered a nationwide dialog.

So, yeah, that was March. Let’s overview.

‘Make Plan A piece’

On the primary day of the month, all the highest quarterbacks on this yr’s draft class held their media sessions at the combine. That included Williams, who tried to offer a thumbnail of his mindset as he approaches the NFL draft.

Williams emphasised how he wants to land in “a place that wants to win.”

“The entire 360,” he continued. “All the best way from the highest right down to the janitors and the individuals who make all the things run. (I would like it the place) everyone desires to win, everyone seems to be a part of that and all of us care for one another.”

The Bears have been scribbling notes.

And when requested if he could be upset to not be chosen No. 1, Williams simply smiled.

“It’s not a thought in my thoughts,” he stated. “I don’t assume I’m not going to be No. 1. I put in all of the onerous work, on a regular basis, effort and vitality into being that. So I don’t consider a Plan B. That’s type of how I do issues in my life. I don’t consider a Plan B. I keep on Plan A after which when issues don’t work out, I discover a method to make Plan A piece.”

Guess what? Williams’ Plan A appears to be working. He’s nearly definitely going to be chosen with the highest decide in 3½ weeks. And it’s more likely to be Bears basic supervisor Ryan Poles doing the choosing, confirming final week that his preliminary assembly with Williams at the beginning of March supplied a direct connection.

Each emanate a chilled-out confidence together with a cutthroat competitiveness. Their clicking was palpable.

Whereas Indianapolis broke the ice with Williams, the Bears later reunited with him on his residence turf in California. On March 20, Poles, coach Matt Eberflus, offensive coordinator Shane Waldron, assistant GM Ian Cunningham and no less than 5 others with the group stopped in at USC’s professional day. That was the culmination of a getting-to-know-you visit with Williams that spanned three days and included an evening out at The Chicken Streets Membership in West Hollywood and a day on campus watching movie, speaking ball and drawing on the whiteboard.

And all that got here inside three days of the Bears flipping the web page from the Justin Fields era in Chicago. Fields’ roller-coaster three-season existence as a Bear ended halfway by means of March. Poles drove to Eberflus’ home so they could call Fields and deliver the news together.

Fields’ exit got here after a flurry of quarterback strikes across the league uncovered a commerce market by which Fields’ companies — particularly as a attainable beginning possibility — have been in restricted demand.

So he’s now off to Pittsburgh as a QB2 for now, primarily changing Mitch Trubisky for the second time in 35 months after Trubisky turned his Steelers gear in and headed again to Buffalo to be Josh Allen’s backup.

Oh, and Poles needed to break the Fields commerce information to his 11-year-old son, Mason, who has the quarterback’s jersey on his bed room wall, went as Fields for Halloween final yr and had constructed up a reasonably stable bond with the Bears’ QB1.

“It type of places into perspective how troublesome these strikes are,” Poles stated.

The constructing course of

Certain, quarterback developments have been essentially the most vital and talked about occurrences in a chaotic Bears month. However soooo rather more occurred, an occasion log that included however was not restricted to …

Within the ongoing hunt for a brand new stadium, Bears President and CEO Kevin Warren made a pointy and notable pivot — away from a attainable megaplex on the 326 acres of Arlington Heights land the staff bought in 2023 and toward a grand lakefront vision that could keep the team playing near their current Soldier Field home and in a approach the place a 365-day-per-year sports activities and leisure mecca might spring to life in downtown Chicago.

“All of those tasks require imaginative and prescient. They require tenacity. They require quite a lot of thought and planning,” Warren stated. “However in addition they require momentum. And I strongly consider that we’re constructing momentum towards that museum space.”

Was this all merely a negotiating shell-game maneuver to achieve leverage in ongoing tax negotiations with the suburban mission? Or a reliable maneuver by which the Bears stadium enterprise might additionally enliven the town? As March turned to April, the latter appears extra possible.

Poles’ roster-building efforts, in the meantime, remained disciplined however purposeful with 14 new gamers signing, a listing that included veteran safety Kevin Byard and operating again D’Andre Swift.

The Bears additionally traded for 2 possible Week 1 starters, including six-time Pro Bowl receiver Keenan Allen, he of the NFL’s prestigious 10,000-yard membership, an elite fraternity of 55 members and counting.

Take into consideration that for a second. The Bears landed a playmaking pass-catcher with almost twice as many receiving yards as their group’s profession chief (Johnny Morris, 5,059 from 1958-1967) and it was perhaps the fifth or sixth most notable growth of the month.

Cornerback Jaylon Johnson? He had himself fairly the March too. First, he was hit with the franchise tag. Fifty hours later, Johnson agreed to a four-year, $76 million contract extension. Then at a Halas Hall news conference the following week, he revealed his Professional Bowl breakthrough season in 2023 got here amid vital private tumult — a sexual dependancy he stated despatched him into remedy.

And why, one reporter requested, did Johnson really feel compelled to disclose such private particulars whereas discussing his new contract?

“For one,” Johnson stated, “it’s as a result of I do know I’m not the one one going by means of it. Two, it’s OK to undergo stuff. It’s OK to not be excellent. … Like man, we’re human too. We undergo issues. All people goes by means of issues.

“I really feel like individuals really feel like you need to put a masks on, you’ve acquired to cowl it up. Like, nah, it’s OK to undergo issues. It’s OK to hunt assist. It’s OK to be susceptible.”

Like we stated, it was a newsy month.

Social points

Shortly earlier than final season ended, Poles quickly deleted social media from his telephone. In an offseason with a lot at stake and so many big selections to make, the Bears GM didn’t wish to be distracted, didn’t need his thoughts cluttered by a sewer pipe of misinformation and enraged debate.

However when free company started, he broke that freeze. In any case, the quickest method to sustain with free-agency motion throughout the NFL is by way of social media. So Poles logged again on. And he may need wished, at instances, that he by no means had. As a result of March 2024 may need been the month when Bears Twitter, or X or no matter we’re calling it today, went totally off the rails. And we’re not simply speaking concerning the exercise of three-time NBA champion and present Bulls shade analyst Stacey King, who spent the primary half of the month expressing his passionate allegiance to Fields and blowtorching anybody who disagreed. King then primarily reacted to the Fields commerce with double-birds flying at those that got here after him with a “We advised you so” posture.

To his viewers of 89,000-plus followers, King wrote: “I’m not apologizing for (poop emoji). See that’s the issue with a few of you clowns on twitter you need validation for being proper about your private opinions and need a formal apology from individuals who don’t agree along with your narrative…Good luck with that particularly from me son! Once more right here’s a cookie for being proper along with your opinion now go play!”

I’m not apologizing for 💩see that’s the issue with a few of you clowns on twitter you need validation for being proper about your private opinions and need a formal apology from individuals who don’t agree along with your narrative…Good luck with that particularly from me son! Once more right here’s… https://t.co/jNr6RdAOmP pic.twitter.com/qjHc36PWpl

— Stacey King (@Stacey21King) March 17, 2024

In King’s protection, his on-line bio warns that anybody bringing “trolling vitality” will get “flamed up and blocked like a shot by Victor Wembanyama.”

Heard it by means of the grapevine

Certain sufficient, X continues to determine itself because the trade chief in dispute, a spot the place rational discourse recurrently will get vomited on by hyper-reactive rage and startling vitriol. And due to the platform’s present algorithmic faucet, many turned uncovered to a flood of Bears content material in March that bordered on ridiculous.

Early within the month, one X consumer jumped right into a “Areas” dialog claiming to have supremely credible intel from inside his barbershop that Fields was no doubt staying in Chicago because the Bears QB1.

Apparently — and we’re very loosely summarizing right here — somebody’s greatest buddy’s sister’s boyfriend’s brother’s girlfriend heard from this man who is aware of this child who’s going with a lady who noticed Justin cross out at 31 Flavors. Or one thing like that.

Regardless of the case, credit cleat artist Marvin Baroota, who has spent the previous seven seasons helping a wide selection of Bears gamers with incredible shoe designs, for serving to to extinguish that fireside. Baroota stated he merely texted Fields concerning the rumor — “some dude at your barbershop speaking lol” — after which posted the screengrab of what he asserts was Fields’ reply.

“I don’t go to a barbershop lol.”

per supply 😂 https://t.co/6pZikqbVC4 pic.twitter.com/108vUbT9az

— Marvin Baroota (@MarvinBaroota) March 5, 2024

Thriller solved. We expect.

Previous-school journalism methods at their best.

Fields was dealt to the Steelers on March 16, ending the quarterback’s time with the Bears.

Now what?

Again inside the true NFL world, the Bears remained the center-stage attraction over three days in Orlando on the league’s spring conferences. Poles, Warren, Eberflus and McCaskey spoke publicly about present occasions with the group.

Eberflus talked at size about all the things starting from his quarterback growth plans to his new beard. Poles gushed with anticipation about the possible/probable union with Williams. Warren doubled down on his imaginative and prescient to create an iconic closed-roof stadium and recreation district on the museum campus close to Lake Michigan.